Cities and regions of Uzbekistan

The major and most well-known Uzbekistan’s cities Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva are located along the historical Great Silk Road and have good transportation links.How can Tashkent be described briefly? It is a capital, a modern looking and multiethnic metropolis with a busy economic and cultural life. Tashkent is always a political center of the country. However, the city has an Old Town corner where a few old Islamic buildings stand among modern high-rises.Khiva, Samarkand and Bukhara are quite different. You can feel the genuine Oriental spirit in them, which has not been completely destroyed by modern times developments. Those visiting the cities for the first time may find them to appear unreal, looking just like the scenery of a The 1001 Nights play. In Bukhara you may have such an impression almost everywhere. This unique city hadn’t grown outside its initial city wall till 1920. Khiva is a truly remarkable historical and architectural reserve. Its oldest part Ichan-Kala is still the same medieval shakhristan town time has not practically tampered with. Another destination is the sad-looking former port city Muynak, which once stood at the shoreline of the gone Aral Sea. In contrast to it stands out blossoming Ferghana Valley - the country’s most fertile agricultural oasis. It is also the beauty and invigorating freshness of Chimgan mountains and the bottomless blue of Lake Charvak…Once you are in Uzbekistan, you should certainly visit them to have more of your brightest impressions and most exciting experiences ever.

Main cities and regions of Uzbekistan

Tashkent

Tashkent, the famous Central Asian city has been existing for over two thousand years at the border of agricultural oases of Central Asia and vast Eurasian steppes. Named “Chach” in the ancient times, present-day capital of Uzbekistan was not so large and historically significant in comparison with its southern neighbors - Samarkand and Bukhara. The site of present Tashkent has been populated for many thousand years. Divine greenery of Tashkent oasis, spreading along the bank of small but full-water river Chirchik, attracted people since Lithic age. Chirchik flows out of Chimgan mountains (western spurs of Tien-Shan mountain land; in fair weather they can be clearly seen from Tashkent) into great Central Asian river Syrdarya.

Samarkand

Samarkand is an amazing, multifarious, unique city. For years of its history it repeatedly changed names, here numerous dynasties of rulers shifted by generations, it was built, destroyed, burnt, rebuilt, etc. So, this city survived whatever this varicolored and famous capital of Orient had fated to, the city admired by Tamelane, where Ulugbek, his descendant, wrote his works on astronomy. This city, with tremendously beautiful, mysterious and unique combination of tranquility with oriental temperament, can impress its visitors for years with only most pleasant and unforgettable memories, full of colors, and feeling of admiration to ancient Central Asian architects who created such a magnificent center of the world, with incomparable beauty and grace.

Bukhara

Bukhara - amazing city of the planet, you can hardly find another city similar to it. Every year crowds of tourists from different corners of the world come here to witness living history fixed in stones of numerous monuments of medieval architecture having passed through centuries to bring us enjoy and tell about life, culture, interests of both ordinary people and upper rulers-khans, emirs, officials. Bukhoro-i-Sharif or Noble Bukhara have been special, in all meaning of this word, cultic oriental city for centuries up to present. Most interesting city in the world, writers and poets always called the city Saint Bukhara, Land of Islam, the pillar of religion. All these names related to religious significance of Bukhara for the whole Muslim community.

Khiva

Khiva-ancient city in Khorezm viloyat on the lower reaches of the Amudarya, the pearl of Khorezm oasis, for a long time acting as the prominent center of the Great Silk Road. Khiva deserves to be called a city-museum in the open. It has preserved its numerous invaluable exhibits from old days to the present and became for our contemporaries something like Pompeii that survived after destroying “volcanic attack”. Unlike that ancient Roman city - now existing only in our memories - new Khiva is lively proof of the old one - distant and incomprehensible for us now. Like many other prosperous oriental cities, Khiva was born only due to waters of nearby Amudarya and raised on irrigated lands of fruitful Khorezm oasis.

Fergana

Fergana city located in eastern part of Uzbekistan, on the southern edge of the Fergana valley, acts as administrative center of Fergana region. Fergana was founded in 1876 by general Skobelev, it is about 420 km east of Tashkent and 75 km west of Andijan. Total square of the city - 95 sq.km. Fergana has common border with Margilan, Kuvasay, also Tashlak and Fergana regions. The city’s altitude is 580 m; it’s one of the important oil-production centers. Here, in 1908 was constructed the first oil-refinery. Fergana has no ancient architectural and historical monuments but its outskirts famed for unique beautiful sites.

Shakhrisabz

Translated from Persian, Shakhrisabz means “Green City”, this definition quite applicable to Shakhrisabz as this city is really buried in verdure of orchards and vineyards. According to administrative division, Shakhrisabz refers to Kashkadarya region (viloyat) of Uzbekistan with center in Karshi city. Quite small in size, Shakhrisabz is located in only 80 km south of Samarkand, near Gissar and Zeravshan chains, at the interflow of Aksu and Tankhoz rivers. Its altitude is 622 m. Distance between Tashkent and Shakhrisabz is 410 km and from regional center of Kashkadarya region-Karshi city - 100 km. Through Shakhrisabz runs international highway starting in Tashkent - the Big Uzbek Tract.

Urgut

Urgut is a small town in Samarkand province (oblast), Uzbekistan, some 50 km southeast of Samarkand (Samarqand). Urgut is situated at the foothill of the Zeravshan Range, at an elevation of 1,000 m above sea level, close to the border with Kashkadarya province. Formerly a large village, in 1973 it gained the status of a town, and today it is the administrative centre of Urgut district. The town’s industry includes several carpet weaving factories, a slate producing plant, and a subsidiary of the British-American Tobacco Company.

Termez

The city of Termez is the center of the District. An ancient settlement which was populated in the times of the Greek-Bactrain rules (III-II c. B.C) was discovered near Termez. Among the numerous archeological and architectural sites discovered in the Termez area the Buddhist religious center Kara-Tepa with its various monuments of Buddhist culture (ruins of monasteries, frescoes, statues) is of particular importance, as well as the Fayaz-Tepa Buddhist monastery complex (I-III c.), the Kyrk-Kiz country palace (XIV-X c.), the Hakim-at-Termezi architectural complex (XI-XV c.), the Sultan-Saadat Mausoleum complex of the Rules of Termez (XI-XVII c.).

Urgench

Today’s Urgench is a small city with a population of about 140,000. It is located near the border with Turkmenistan. Urgench has an international first-class airport named after the city. It is fit for any types of aircraft. Through the city runs the railway line Turkmenabad - Beyneu; and you can travel inside it on shuttle buses, taxi shuttle minibuses and taxies. Besides public transport facilities, Urgench is developing its hotel and restaurant businesses, thanks to which tourists can enjoy their stay in the city. Urgench is like a gate leading to fascinating Khiva and Urgench’s predecessor Kunya Urgench, which is an amazing historical site, too.

Nurata

At the very mountainous area of Navoi region of Uzbekistan is located a picturesque ancient town, administrative and culture center of the area - Nurata. It is surrounded by the range of Nurata mountains, which stretches for 170 kilometers from Jizzakh and Golodnaya Steppe to Navoi and Kyzyl-Kum desert. Historians connect foundation of the town with the fortress Nur (in translation means “ray”, “ray of light”), built here by Alexander the Great in IV century B.C. The fortress served as a borderland building between wild steppes and agricultural areas. Ruins of the fortress remained till present days and are one of the places of interest in Nurata.

Baysun

Southern town of Uzbekistan - Bаysun (also spelt Boysun, Bajsun or Baisun) - is located in two hours drive from the center of Surkhandarya region (Termez), towards Baysuntog mountains, in the branches of Hissar range. Having arrived to Baysun, one may feel as if he came to another world - isolated, where the sole of far centuries is still felt. And not only the historical monuments and sights make it such one, but also people, who live in Baysun, hold the customs and traditions of their ancestors sacred, sing ancient songs, and who are masters in handicrafts, which became the heritage of our country.

Shakhimardan

The town of Shakhimardan is located at a distance of 55 km from Ferghana at an altitude of 1,550 m in the mountains of the Alay Range. Shakhimardan boasts fantastically fresh mountain air and crystal clear fresh water of its rivers. The mountain landscapes in the area are stunning. At a distance of seven kilometers northeast of city lies in the mountains the ‘blue lake’ Kurban-Kul. You can get to this wonder of nature by a two-kilometer-long ropeway, enjoying terrific mountain scenery. It is good for climate medical treatment: clean and a little thinner air and higher radiation from the sun help to alleviate serious illnesses.

Ustyurt Plateau

Ustyurt Plateau is the most mysterious and least researched destination in Uzbekistan. In some records the plateau is called ‘an island’, and it is clear why: within the mass of desert sand chink plateau edge cliffs of over 300 meters in height are rising. The cliffs are so steep that there is only a place or two within the length of over 100 kilometers where a human can go up to the top of them. The very sight of a steeply rising wall in the desert makes you feel awe for it. Besides, these cliffs have very impressive colors: from pure white to blue and pink, looking like a wonderland walls. Once you have got up, you see it still looks surreal.

Sarmish-Say Gorge

Sarmish-Say Gorge is located at a distance of 30 kilometers northeast of the city of Navoi, on the southern slopes of the Karatau Mountain Range. Nature seems to have created the gorge to serve as a huge canvas for early artists. There are over 4,000 petroglyphs and pictographs scattered along the gorge over a distance of two kilometers. Most of the them are approximately 6,000 - 4,000 years old; the oldest of them are over 10,000 years old. Some of them are rock engravings; some were made with ochre-based paints. The pictures cover subjects as diverse as hunting scenes and rituals, or they are just depictions of humans and animals.

Nukus

Nukus is the capital and the administrative, economic, scientific and cultural centre of the Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan. The city, which occupies an area of 200 sq km, is situated in the north of Uzbekistan, in an oasis in the southern part of the contemporary Amudarya delta, near the famous shrinking Aral Sea. The green oasis is surrounded by three deserts: the Karakum (‘Black Sands’) Desert, the Kyzylkum (‘Red Sands’) Desert and the stony desert of the Ustyurt Plateau. Recently they have been joined by a fourth one, Aralkum or Akkum (‘White Sands’), which is the bottom of the former Aral Sea covered with salt sand.